Create and Manage Clusters

You can use the HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) to create Consul clusters. A cluster is a group of one or three Consul server agents.

Prerequisites

We recommend creating the following components before you create Consul clusters:

A HashiCorp virtual network (HVN)
A peering connection or transit gateway attachment
Routes for directing network traffic between the HVN and a target connection

The procedure for creating and configuring these components is specific to the infrastructure environment. Refer to the specific instructions for your environment:

Create a Consul Cluster

Sign in to the HCP Portal and select your organization.
From the sidebar, click Consul.
Click Create cluster.
Select the provider of your infrastructure environment and then click Next.
Select HCP UI Workflow and then click Next.
Enter a name for the cluster in the Cluster ID field. The cluster ID is a unique identifier that cannot be used for other active HCP Consul clusters.
Choose the HVN where you want to deploy your clusters. You should configure the HVN for the same environment where your Consul agents are deployed. If an appropriate HVN for your environment does not exist, click Create new network to create a new HVN.
If you want to be able to access the Consul cluster UI from an external network, enable the Allow public connections from outside your selected network option. Enabling public access is less secure. We do not recommend enabling this option for production servers.
Choose a cluster tier. Each tier enables a different set of Consul server features. Different tiers and features are available for different infrastructure environments. For more information, refer to Features Overview.
Choose a size for the cluster. Clusters are measured by the number of virtual CPUs and amount of RAM per service instance. For example, a small cluster supports up to 500 service instances. For more information, refer to HCP Consul Pricing.
Choose the Consul version for your server agents. If you do not require a specific version, we recommend choosing the default option, which is the latest release of Consul.
Click Create cluster.

HCP then begins cluster creation. It takes about 10 minutes for the operation to finish. Wait until your cluster is created before connecting clusters and deploying agents.

HCP includes an interface that generates Terraform code that you can run locally to create a Consul cluster in AWS. The Terraform code also deploys Consul to either a new VPC or an existing VPC. It also deploys a sample application that you can interact with and observe in the HCP Consul UI.

Video: Watch A video presentation of Automated HCP Consul Deployments with Terraform.

Sign in to the HCP Portal and select your organization.
From the sidebar, click Consul.
Click More and then Development Cluster in AWS.
If you need to create a new VPC, click Create a new VPC. Otherwise, continue with the configuration options under Use existing VPC.
Choose a runtime.
Choose a region from the HCP Region menu. This region is where you created the Consul server. If you are connecting to an existing VPC, we recommend you create the cluster in the same region as your VPC in order to reduce latency.
Under VPC Region, select a region. This region is where your existing VPC is located or where you want to create your new VPC.
Specify the networking information for the existing VPC. Specify the VPC ID, Private route table ID, Private subnet 1, and Private subnet 2, if applicable.
If you have not already done so, use the CLI to generate a service principal and key. This step authenticates Terraform to interact with HCP. For more information, refer to Service Principals.
Copy the Terraform configuration file generated on HCP. Save this code as main.tf in your Terraform directory.
Initialize the directory:

$ terraform init

Preview the Terraform plan:

$ terraform plan

If no adjustments are necessary, apply the configuration to begin building the infrastructure:

$ terraform apply -auto-approve

The building process takes about 10 minutes to complete.

After Terraform starts, the cluster appears in the list of Consul clusters in HCP. You can click the name of your cluster to view details, connect a VPC to your cluster, and access the Consul cluster’s UI.

Wait until cluster creation is complete before you proceed.

Sign in to the HCP Portal and select your organization.
From the sidebar, click Consul.
Click Create cluster.
Select the provider of your infrastructure environment and then click Next.
Select Terraform automation and then click Next.
To connect HCP to your existing VNet, enter the VNet Name, HCP region, Resource group name, Azure subscription ID, and Subnet name.
If you have not already done so, use the CLI to generate a service principal and key. This step authenticates Terraform to interact with HCP. For more information, refer to Service Principals.
Copy the Terraform configuration file generated on HCP. Save this code as main.tf in your Terraform directory.
Initialize the directory:

$ terraform init

Preview the Terraform plan:

$ terraform plan

If no adjustments are necessary, apply the configuration to begin building the infrastructure:

$ terraform apply -auto-approve

HCP then begins cluster creation. It takes about 10 minutes for the operation to finish. Wait until your cluster is created before connecting clusters and deploying agents.

Tutorial: For step-by-step guidance on deploying HCP Consul on Azure using Terraform automation, refer to the Deploy HCP Consul with VM using Terraform tutorial.

Cluster Configuration Reference

There are several cluster configuration options:

Attribute	Description	Default
Cluster ID	A name that serves as a unique identifier for your cluster. This value cannot be the same as other active HCP Consul clusters.	`consul-cluster`
Cluster size	Specifies the vCPU and GiB RAM configurations. Each size corresponds to a number of service instances. Extra small is only available on the development tier.	Small
Cluster tier	Four tiers are available: Development: Lowest tier designed for testing purposes. Standard: Middle tier designed for production workloads located in a single region. Plus: Higher tier designed for production workloads spanning multiple regions. Premium: Highest tier designed for production workloads spanning multiple cloud providers. For more details, refer to cluster tiers.	Development
Consul version	Specifies the Consul version deployed to the cluster. If your environment does not require a specific version, we recommend you use the default version.	Latest GA version
Network	Specifies the HVN that contains the cluster.	Defaults to the first HVN listed in HCP.
Network accessibility	Enables access to the Consul UI through a public endpoint. For production use cases, we recommend that you disable public accessibility.	Disabled

View the Cluster’s Consul UI

If you followed the demo cluster creation instructions, you can use the HCP interface to view th. The quick start feature creates a cluster with a public address, which we do not recommend for production.

Sign in to the HCP Portal and select your organization.
From the sidebar, click Consul.
Click on a cluster in the ID column.
From the Access Consul menu, click Generate admin token.
Copy the token, then click Close.
From the Access Consul menu, click Public.
Open the URL for the public address in your browser.
Click Log in.
Paste the admin token and then click Log in.

The Consul UI appears. The default page lists the services deployed to the cluster.

For more information about navigating the Consul UI and using Consul features, refer to the Consul documentation.

Edit a Cluster

You can change the Consul version and cluster size after you create the cluster. You may want to edit clusters as new versions of Consul become available or as your networking needs evolve. However, you cannot modify the cluster name, tier, or HVN after creating a cluster. You also cannot delete clusters that are part of a federated network.

HashiCorp automatically updates your Consul clusters to fix common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE).

To learn how to upgrade your Consul version or cluster tier, refer to Upgrades.

Delete a Cluster

Important: When you delete a HCP Consul cluster, the snapshots associated with the cluster are also removed. You can’t recover snapshots after they are removed. If you intend to restore a cluster, use an API call to download the snapshot before you delete the cluster. When you restore it, the new cluster’s name must match the name of the deleted cluster.

You can delete clusters from HCP.

Sign in to the HCP Portal and select your organization.
From the sidebar, click Consul.
From the ellipsis menu next to the cluster you want to delete, click Delete.
To confirm, enter DELETE. Then click Delete.